I will continue a little bit more aobut the topic I wrote last time. I wrote about the work that David Korpela has been doing to change attitudes. In many African countries the witch doctors and other traiditonal beliefs still have a huge influence to attitudes. In Africa, traditional Healers have a great influence on how societies perceive new ideas and react to change. “The Witchdoctor” is a comical drama that seeks to affirm the role of the traditional healer, who at the grassroots level is doing his part to fight against H.I.V and AIDS.

  See also the other winners of ViewChange contest.

I think when it comes to many diseases, there should  be more information about them available for everybody. Why I'm talking about AIDS prevention? I watched the short films that together make the feature film '8', and I can say that I was most touched by the video number 6 about COMBAT HIV / AIDS, MALARIA AND OTHER DISEASES! I recommend the film to every one of you to watch! Find out more about it: http://www.ldmproductions.fr/8/ Push the Watch on Youtube-link to watch this video, and if there are no subtitles, push the CC-button on the right and choose english!

Now that we’re going to Kenya, I’ve been reading a lot about Kenya. The healthcare indeed seems to be one of the most difficult things to solve. « Every year thousands of Kenyans go without essential medicines because of poor supply chain management, corruption and insufficient funding of the health service, say civil society members. » http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportID=91242

New scientific evidence and treatment recommendations reinforce the need to treat people earlier and with better medicines, both to prevent them from becoming severely ill, and to help reduce transmission of the virus among the population. Despite this evidence, there is a general trend toward backtracking on HIV funding. http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/publications/article.cfm?id=4936&cat=special-report

In the video Conference we also talked via Skype about the role of the celebrities and how they can influence, and to help raise awareness and inspire donations? For example one of my favorite bands Hanson have taken action when it comes to the topic I already wrote about in my previous blog post, HIV/AIDS prevention.

In their book Take the walk – A journey to awareness, to action and to hope, they write :

With the multitude of issues confronting the world, why does this one rise to the top ? And why should those of us seemingly untouched by the effects of this pandemic step in to this arena, when there are so many other issues further up the queue ? First of all, there has never been a disease as broadly devastating to a single generation. Most of those infected are in sub-Saharan Africa. They are parents, teachers and leaders in the community. What happens when those who are most needed disappear ? We have seen up colse the answer to that question. The result has been devastating, perpetuating the downward spiral of desease and poverty, driving entire communities and countries into turmoil that they can’t pull themselves out of. Statistics show that more than six thousand children in sub-Saharan Africa are orphaned every day by AIDS, and in many cases they are infected with the virus as well.

As the Hiroshi Nakajima from the World Health Organization has said, it seems though that the most dangerous disease is poverty. I read an article about malaria lately in a Finnish Science-magazine. In the article it was said that if the West would have been interested about solving the problems of malaria, the disease would no longer exist. In contrast there has been interest in research of HIV, because it affected so many young men who were rich. This is why the reasearch has got a lot of money and interest.

I believe celebrities and other rich people do have a big role in these things. The sponsors and campaigns do seem to be interested, but do they really make a change, that's the big question. For example the (RED) has a big campaign « Designed to help eliminate AIDS » I just clicked on the link while listening to Spotify…

And here’s a podcast about celebrities’ role in development. In some of my blog posts I have attached music videos by Hanson. I can say they have made a change when it comes to my life, and I believe celebrities are able to influence many people's lives with the message they give.

This is why I will once again share a music video with you.